Currently, custom web applications are used to gather relevant business information for on-line web stores. These applications typically require a user to log in to his or her account via a web server. Business information associated with a user is tracked by examining the user's browsing history for a particular on-line account.
For example, business information concerning usage of a particular home improvement business having an on-line store, such as Lowe's®, is captured for users having an established on-line account with that store. This information may be made available to Lowe's®. Business information available to another home improvement business having an on-line store, such as Home Depot® may be captured similarly for users having an established on-line account with that store, and such information may be made available to Home Depot®.
Collecting business information in this manner limits the usefulness of the business information. In particular, the business information captured is only made available to the store with which the user has a web account. Thus, for example, business information captured for users having on-line accounts with Lowe's® is not made available to Home Depot®, and vice versa.
Applications are available that collect business information by tracking the browsing history associated with a user's device. However, if the user switches to other devices, there is no way to track the browsing history of the user across the various devices. Further, such applications typically require downloading of software onto a user's device to perform such tracking. Depending upon the device settings, the device may treat the software as malware and reject downloading it. In addition, such applications are specific to a vendor, such that the collected business information is only available to the vendor providing the tracking application.